Editorial: Don't stick it to Poseidon project

2013-11-08 15:10:37

Drakes Bay Oyster Co., a West Marin County company, plants and harvests a third of California’s oysters and owns the state’s only oyster cannery.

In February, the Coastal Commission issued a cease-and-desist order that, among other dictates, required Drakes Bay to remove two supposed “invasive” species from Drakes Estero, to take measures to protect harbor seals, and to develop a plan for managing marine debris left behind by the company that preceded Drakes Bay.

It’s because so many California companies, small, medium and large, have had similar bad experiences with the Coastal Commission that the state regulatory body is viewed with fear and loathing by much of the state’s business community.

Against that backdrop, the Coastal Commission will hold hearings this week in Newport Beach on a proposal by Poseidon Water to construct and operate a seawater desalination plant adjacent to the AES Power Station in Huntington Beach.

Poseidon’s project, which would produce 50 million gallons a day of freshwater, equal to roughly 8 percent of the daily needs of Orange County residents, has been in the regulatory pipeline since 1998. It was approved by the Huntington Beach City Council in 2006, the State Lands Commission in 2010 and the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board in 2012.

Not surprisingly, the project has been opposed every step of the permitting process by assorted environmental groups. That includes Surfrider Foundation, which claims the current design for the Surf City plant “would set the lowest possible standards for protecting our coast and ocean.”

Yet, Poseidon’s design for its Huntington Beach plant would be similar to the design for its Carlsbad desalination plant, which the Coastal Commission approved in 2008 and which will deliver water to San Diego County residents starting in 2016. The approval came after the company satisfied some 22 conditions, including minimizing collateral damage to marine life and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions in the process of converting saltwater to freshwater.

While Poseidon’s proposal for Huntington Beach is similar to its Carlsbad proposal, including the 22 conditions, Commission staff has imposed extra conditions for the Huntington Beach project.

Some of the conditions seem reasonable to us. But others appear to be poison pills, embedded in the 500-something-page staff report for purposes of killing the project.

Perhaps the most odious is the recommendation that “the Commission require Poseidon to use a subsurface intake to obtain seawater needed for desalination,” so that marine life will not be harmed. Of more than 12,000 desalination plants worldwide, not one the size of the proposed Huntington Beach facility employs subsurface intake.

The Coastal Commission should take a hard look at the “Special Conditions” its staff would impose on Poseidon’s Huntington Beach project, overruling those – like required use of subsurface intake – that clearly are infeasible.